Bessie M Richards

Place of birth: Wenallt ?

Service: Girl Guide Commisioner, Girl Guides, 1915 - 1918

Notes: Bessie was obviously a leading Girl Guide, and old enough to have done some volunteering at Aberdare Red Cross Hospital. In August 1917 she was appointed Commissioner for Aberdare and Merthyr, with the object of forming new Companies in the area.

Reference: WaW0412

Newspaper report

Report of Bessie Richards’s appointment as Commissioner for Aberdare and Merthyr. Aberdare Leader 11th August 1917

Elizabeth Roberts

Place of birth: Denbighshire ?

Service: Washerwoman

Notes: A Red Cross card records that Elizabeth worked for 11 months as a washerwoman at Brynkinalt Auxiliary Hospital, Chirk for 4 to 5 days a week, one of them unpaid. Her husband was a collier away on active service. The Commandant remarked ‘The work was very heavy, and she was most ungrudging in giving extra time, and did the work admirably’. She was not a member of the British Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0417

Red Cross record card British Red Cross

Red Cross card for Elizabeth Roberts

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Red Cross card for Elizabeth Roberts [reverse] showing her service.

Gwerfyl R Williams

Place of birth: Bangor

Service: Masseuse, 1919 -

Notes: Gwerfyl Williams was appointed masseuse at the Ministry of Pensions outpatients clinic in Bangor in October 1919.

Reference: WaW0419

Newspaper report

Report of Gwerfyl’s appointment as masseuse in Bangor. North Wales Chronicle 31st October 1919

Lily Stock

Place of birth: Pontypool

Service: Nurse, VAD, November 1917 – August 1919

Notes: Lily served with the VAD in Hospitals in Bristol and Colchester. She was paid, her pay rising from £12 per annum to £20 per annum. Her name appears on the Griffithstown Baptist Church Roll of Honour – possibly twice, as both Nurse Stock and Lily Stock are named. There are two sets of Red Cross cards, one naming Beatrice Lily Stock and one just Lily. Otherwise the details are the same.

Reference: WaW0416

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card with name Beatrice Lily

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card with name Lily

Griffithstown Baptist Church Roll of Honour

Griffithstown Baptist Church Roll of Honour showing names of Nurse Stock and Lily Stock. Thanks to Gethin Matthews.

Mary Evans

Place of birth: Swansea ?

Service: Masseuse, VAD, 1914 - 1918

Notes: Mary Evans was a professional masseuse who volunteered for the VAD in four Red Cross Hospitals. Her health broke down in 1918, and she herself was admitted to hospital. Her practice was taken over by Mr and Mrs Walton in 1919.

Reference: WaW0418

Red Cross record card

Record card for Mary Evans

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Record card for Mary Evans giving details of her VAD service

Newspaper advertisement

Notice of the Waltons taking over Miss Evans’s practice. Cambria Daily Leader 23rd December 1919

Roll of Honour

Miss May Evans’s name on the Roll of Honour Henrietta Street Chapel, Swansea. Thanks to Gethin Matthews.

Queenie Parry

Place of birth: Ebbw Vale ?

Service: Nurse, Munitions worker, VAD, March 1915 – May 1918 Mawrth

Notes: Queenie was originally a member of Ebbw Vale VAD, but transferred to Maindiff Court Hospital Abergavenny. She worked there as a night nurse on £20 p.a. She then moved to work in munitions at Rotherwas, Hereford. She offered to come back to Maindiff Court if needed.rn

Reference: WaW0424

Red Cross record card

Record of Queenie Parry’s VAD work.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Reverse of Queenie Parry’s card with details of her move to munitions.

R Ellis

Place of birth: Aberystwyth ?

Service: Masseuse, VAD, 1919 -

Notes: Miss R Ellis was working as a masseuse at Red Cross Hospital Aberystwyth, which was closed down in 1919. Temporary arrangements were made to enable her to continue working with disabled ex-servicemen in the Infirmary.

Reference: WaW0420

Newspaper report

Report of the working arrangements made for Miss Ellis. Cambrian News 25 April 1919.

Ella Jane Vincentia MacLaverty

Place of birth: Llangattock-Vibon-Avel

Service: Driver, FANY, Red Cross, 1914 ? - 1919

Notes: Ella MacLaverty, born 1880, was the youngest child of the wealthy vicar of Llangattock near Monmouth. She may have joined the Red Cross as a chauffeuse in 1914; she was definitely a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry by July 1918, and may have been part of the St Omer convoy when George V visited the battlefields. Late in the war and after the Armistice she was employed driving those involved with clearing unexploded bombs in Hazebrouck and Poperinge.

Sources: https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2020/01/05/the-women-who-knew-talbot-house/?fbclid=IwAR3pjQb2iBRWs1CH1vjyMJC9ek1RiF5eCHWPM6HfXW2FK3BuGVzRfwe-vCk

Reference: WaW0414

Red Cross record card

Record card for Ella MacLaverty.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Record card for Ella MacLaverty (reverse)

Communicant’s slip

Communicant’s slip for Talbot House, the Toc H church centre in Poperinge, Flanders.

Gwenllian Lewis

Place of birth: Treharris

Service: Nurse, TFNS, November/Tachwedd 1914 – Jul

Notes: Gwenllian Lewis seems to have been working as a private nurse in the Midlands before she was called up in 1914. She spent three years at the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester before going to France in 1917. She remained there until early 1919 when she returned to Leicester. Her annual appraisals all refer to her as a ‘good nurse’ who was kind to patients. Her only misdemeanour was losing her TFNS badge, and having to pay for a replacement.

Reference: WaW0426

Annual Review

Gwenllian Lewis’s last annual report before being deployed to France.

Testimonial

TFNS testimonial for Gwenllian Lewis on resigning from the force.

Esther Novinski/y

Place of birth: Tonypandy

Service: Doctor

Notes: Esther was the daughter of jeweller in Tonypandy, part of the Jewish community of the Valleys. She attended Porth County School before scholarships took her to University College Cardiff. After graduating in 1915 Esther completed her medical training at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She was appointed senior house surgeon there in May 1918 when ‘not yet 27 years of age’!

Reference: WaW0436

Newspaper report

Report of Esther Novinski’s appoinment at the Royal Free Hospital. Rhondda Leader 18th May 1918.